Biological material derived from plants represents a promising source for renewable and sustainable biofuel production, but there is a lack of cost-effective and efficient enzymes for converting plant-derived ...

An essential weapon in the body's fight against infection has come into sharper view. Researchers at Princeton University have discovered the 3D structure of an enzyme that cuts to ribbons the genetic material ...

The first convincing evidence that the amino acid methionine plays a role in catalysis in an enzyme has been uncovered by researchers from the University of Bristol. Previously, it was thought that methionine ...

Structural biologists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have resolved the 3D structure of a protein machine that plays an important part in the maintenance of genomic stability. ...

Every year thousands of people are fitted with artificial heart valves to replace their own malfunctioning valve. Many of these patients, however, have to remain on drugs that stop blood clotting on these ...

For the ancient ancestors of plants and animals, a partnership with other microbes was once formed during an endosymbiotic event to give rise to eukaryotes. Plants and animals, over billions of years of trial and error, made ...

(Phys.org) —The potential is there for bacteria and other microbes to be genetically engineered to perform a cornucopia of valuable goods and services, from the production of safer, more effective medicines ...

Thanks to newer and faster supercomputers, today's computer simulations are opening hidden vistas to researchers in all areas of science. These powerful machines are used for everything from understanding ...

Chemical analyses by neuroscientist Jerrold Meyer and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are helping to establish hair cortisol concentration (HCC) as an important new biomarker for stress in wild animals ...

(Phys.org) —Two of the most urgent challenges for scientists are the battles against food shortages and infectious diseases like malaria. Unfortunately, both the herbicides used to protect plants and the ...

Scientists at EMBL-EBI have developed EC-BLAST: software that makes it easier to develop novel enzymes. Published in Nature Methods, the program makes it possible to quickly compare the functions of thousa ...